Israel - Hamas

Looks like they are pretty pissed off and serious about doing some major damage to Hamas this time.

Egypt is still sitting on the sidelines at the moment and it has to stay that way or this thing could erupt and envelope the entire ME, not just the Gaza Strip.

Also, with the threat of ground forces, it appears Israel may not be content to just send a message, but may be ready to move in and end Hamas this time. I do not understand WTF Hamas thought the end result would be if they kept sending rocket attacks at the Israeli population last week.

The sudden increase in violence has raised fears of a widening conflict that could lead to an Israeli ground assault.

At least 196 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel "since Operation Pillar of Defense began yesterday," the Israeli military said. In response, the Israel Defense Forces said, it has targeted "156 terror sites."

Sources with Hamas, which controls the government in Gaza, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad gave similar figures, saying more than 140 strikes have hit Gaza and that more than 160 rockets and shells have been fired into Israel.

Palestinian relatives of Hisham Ghalban mourn over his body in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 15. A picture taken from the southern Israeli town of Sderot shows smoke billowing from a spot targeted by an Israeli air strike inside the Gaza strip on November 15. A Palestinian man inspects his damaged house following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City in the early hours of November 15. An Israeli reacts after a rocket launched from Gaza strip hit a building killing 3 people in the city of Kiryat Malachi on November 15. An Israeli woman and children sit inside a bomb shelter on November 14, in Netivot, Israel. The Israeli military launch a missile from the Iron Dome missile system in the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva into the Gaza Strip on November 15. Palestinian firefighters extinguish fire from the car of Ahmed al-Ja'abari, head of the military wing of the Hamas movement, the Ezzedin Qassam Brigades, after it was hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Wednesday, November 14. Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Wednesday. Palestinian firefighters extinguish fire from the car in which al-Ja'abari was apparently riding. Palestinian men react as security forces wheel the body of al-Ja'abari into a hospital. A Palestinian man cries as security forces wheel the body of al-Ja'abari into a hospital. Palestinian youths look inside a building where the body of al-Ja'abari was brought after the attack. A wounded Palestinian girl cries at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Palestinian youths evacuate an elderly man following an Israeli air strike. Palestinian civilians leave their houses following an Israeli air strike. Israeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaIsraeli strikes in GazaHIDE CAPTION<<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 >>> Photos: Israeli strikes in Gaza Map: Israel

Map: Israel

Senior Hamas member on strikes in Gaza At least three Israelis were killed and four were wounded when a rocket struck an apartment building in the town of Kiryat Malakhi on Thursday, an Israeli police spokesman said. Thirteen people, including two children, were reportedly killed in airstrikes in Gaza on Thursday, said Dr. Asraf el-Qdra of Medical Aid for Palestinians. Of the casualties, nine were Hamas militants, he said. More than 120 people have been wounded since the Israeli strikes began this week in Gaza, the officials said.

The violence comes after months of rocket attacks on southern Israel by Palestinian militants, Israel said.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague issued a statement saying he is "gravely concerned" and calling on all sides to avoid civilian casualties.

"Hamas bears principal responsibility for the current crisis. I utterly condemn rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel by Hamas and other armed groups. This creates an intolerable situation for Israeli civilians in southern Israel, who have the right to live without fear of attack from Gaza. The rocket attacks also risk worsening the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which is already precarious."

Here's the American COnservatibe's Scott McConnell take on recent event:

quote:Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu has begun another miniwar against a largely defenseless people in Gaza. Israel is a practiced master of this — send an armored personal carrier across the border, provoke a response, assassinate a Palestinian leader, wait for the reaction, use its high-tech military to kill a few dozen or a few hundred Palestinians. Of course it’s done with American weapons, provided free of charge by American taxpayers. And if the Palestinians or Arab states complain to the UN, Washington will “have Israel’s back.”

I think Israel is really pissed this time. They have sat on there hands for a long time now in regards to Iran and Hamas and last week Hamas thought it would be a good idea to fire a bunch of rockets (over 100) into southern Israel at the general population.

I do not think this will be the typical Israel blows up a few military Hamas targets and calls it a day response. When they start mobilizing groud troops (which they have), they are ready to escalate and possibly end Hamas in Gaza IMO.

quote:Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu has begun another miniwar against a largely defenseless people in Gaza.

That is BS to me. Israel is dropping pamplets telling civilians in Gaza to stay away from Hamas and potential military targets. Not to mention Hamas started firing rockets on the general population of Israel again. WTF did they expect to happen?

Look, I know people love to bitch about media bias, but you didn't even have to click the article. It was in the OP, clearly mentioned. Even the pro-Hamas writer had the rocket strikes as part of his narrative. Can we at least have our complaints bear some resemblance to reality?

quote:send an armored personal carrier across the border, provoke a response, assassinate a Palestinian leader, wait for the reaction, use its high-tech military to kill a few dozen or a few hundred Palestinians.

What evidence does he offer in support of this? The article in the OP does not contain any assertions, or even accusations, that events unfolded as Scott McConnell suggests.

quote:So you believe Israel's response to Hamas firing those rockets at their general population should have been to do nothing?

No, but what happened before the first rocket was fired? In most of these situations, the Israelis have done something to provoke the Palestinians. Back in 2006, Hamas had honored a 16-month ceasefire ahead of the elections to show the world it was willing to give up the bullet and give the ballot a try. Israel's response to Hamas winning the election was to round up Hamas politicians and throw them in jail, and blockade Gaza to punish the Palestinains for voting the wrong way in a free and fair election. Here's how Pat Buchanan put it:

quote:“Why do they hate us?” So stunned Americans asked, after 9/11, when we learned that across the Arab world, many were saying, “The Americans had it coming.”

For a textbook example of why we are hated, consider Gaza and the West Bank. There, a brutal Israeli/U.S.-led cutoff in aid has been imposed on the Palestinians for voting the wrong way in a free election.

Immediately after Hamas’s victory, Israel halted the $55 million a month the Palestinian Authority received as its share of tax and customs revenue. Israel demanded Europe and the U.S. also end all aid to the PA until Hamas renounces terror, recognizes Israel, and disarms.

President Bush, though he was conducting a worldwide crusade for democracy and had urged that the Palestinian elections be held and Hamas participate, obediently complied. For months now, U.S. and European aid to the PA, half its budget, has been halted.

The early returns are in. “Surgeons at Gaza’s biggest hospital,” says the Financial Times, “have suspended non-essential surgery for lack of sutures, laboratory kits and anesthetics.” Environmental protection agency workers have no money for petrol to monitor sewage and industrial waste entering the water supply. Some 150,000 civil servants, 60,000 of them armed security personnel, have gone unpaid for months. . . . . .

The purpose of U.S.-Israeli policy today is to punish the Palestinians for how they voted and to force Hamas to yield or to collapse its government. How does such a policy win hearts and minds for America?

Terrorism has been described as waging war on innocents to break their political leaders. Is that not a fair description of what we are doing to the Palestinians? No wonder they hate us.

This time it will be different, the Zionist will kill them all and we will have peace an harmony as the Palestinians grow to love the Israeli over lords who take what they want and reduce the indigenous population to subsistence in camps and enclaves. More money for israel, Jesus loves them.